BURRILLVILLE — Local school officials thought they had something useful when they saw the statistic in the newspaper late last month.

Burrillville had spent 80 percent of its payroll on school employees’ pay — a greater proportion than almost every other town or city in the state. As a percentage, only North Smithfield had devoted more resources, spending almost 83.7 percent in 2006.

Soon after, the School Committee’s lawyer, Benjamin Scungio, shrewdly employed the ranking in the district’s increasingly public contract negotiations with the teachers union, declaring that by “any measurable standard, the town is making a good effort to fund education.”

The case illustrates the sort of leveraging that can happen when decision-makers and their constituents latch onto hard figures on the gross earnings of public employees, both locally and across the state.

Now, a look at Burrillville’s highest paying salaries offers some additional perspective on the parceling out of the town’s $22.4 million payroll to 183 municipal workers and 601 school employees in 2006.

As a group, the top-ten highest-paid employees in Burrillville’s school system grossed more than their counterparts in municipal government. However, neither one of those employees’ bosses — the district had two school superintendents in 2006 — emerged as the town’s highest-grossing earner.

That honor went to Town Manager Michael C. Wood, who seemed surprised when he was told he had grossed $118,314. The town’s other highest earners were the public works director, the police chief, two and three school principals and several teachers. Police officers, who collected thousands of dollars in overtime, rounded out the list.

The Journal requested the gross pay figures as part of its statewide look at payroll spending in the 2006 calendar year.

The numbers, provided by school and town officials, do not include the cost of benefits, but do include such extra money as overtime, longevity bonuses and additional pay for holding more than one job.

The examination of Burrillville’s top-grossing salaries in today’s North edition leads off daily coverage that will identify the highest gross earners in each of northern Rhode Island’s towns and cities.

AT FIRST, WOOD DIDN’T believe he had grossed more than $118,000 in 2006.

“That can’t be right,” he said.

Now, after some research, he wants to clarify a few things.

First of all, that gross pay figure includes a $14,700 retirement benefit, he said. The gross, he added, also includes a car/travel allowance of $3,900 and $1,497 that was disbursed to him as an incentive for not using his sick days.

If you subtract those three items, the “base salary” was $98,144, Wood said. And that number, he suggested, makes for a fairer comparison with other public employees, such as school superintendents.

Subtracting the retirement benefit is fairer because the gross pay reported for other town employees does not reflect the portion of pension contributions borne on their behalf by the town, he said.

Wood said his retirement benefit has always been reported as gross income because it was paid into a private fund rather than going into the state retirement system. He receives his retirement benefit outside the state pension system because town officials didn’t think he was eligible for a state pension when he was hired, he said.

After subtracting the various extras, Wood contested his standing as the highest paid employee in 2006.

The former school superintendent, Barbara VonVillas, had a lower gross that year but she was paid at a higher rate, he noted. VonVillas left the district halfway through the year and was replaced by Stephen Welford.

The gross pay for both school chiefs was low in the rankings because neither was employed for more than half a year.

VonVillas earned about $107,000 a year at the time of her departure, according to Welford, who said his own gross pay was $106,500 during the 2007 calendar year.

He issued some clarifications, too. For example, he said he bore the cost of his own retirement contribution in 2007, moving more than $9,000 of his gross pay into the state retirement system.

That $106,500 gross figure from 2007 also includes his only travel compensation — a $1,500 mileage reimbursement, he said. He said his agreement with the district did not afford him any extra pay for unused sick days.

STICKING TO THE 2006 numbers, a school principal, Lois E. Short, tallied the second-highest gross.

Richard Bernardo, a public works director who also fulfills a town engineer function, came in third at $92,232. Bernardo’s engineering expertise factored into his salary agreement when he was hired about five years ago, Wood said.

At that time, the town’s ambitious capital improvement program was spending $300,000 to $400,000 a year on various professional services. Now, Bernardo does the civil engineering part of it himself, Wood said.

A police detective, Wayne Richardson, grossed the fourth-highest pay. He earned $88,000, more than his boss, Col. Bernard Gannon, who made $76,652..

Gannon couldn’t give a precise breakdown, but he attributed the detective’s high gross pay to overtime work. Overtime was a major factor in the gross pay of other police officers who earned more than $70,000 in 2006, Gannon said.

The time and earnings add up even though officers aren’t allowed to work more than 16 hours in any 24-hour period, he said.

Most of the overtime money is covered by private businesses who post officers at road projects and other such details, he said.

The department, said Gannon, stayed within its allotted overtime budget even though the 26-officer force is undermanned by a widely accepted standard of 2.5 police officers for every 1,000 residents. Gannon would rather hire more officers than pay overtime.

“We don’t like to see our officers overburdened,” he said.

Compiled by Paul Edward Parker

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

Source: Town of Burrillville

Compiled by Paul Edward Parker

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

Source: Burrillville School Dept.

mreynold@projo.com